I have just made a command decision on how I intend to use this blog. So … here goes.
From this moment forward, I am not going to refer to the 1/6 assault on Capitol Hill as a “riot.” I am now convinced beyond any sort of reasonable doubt that the events of that terrible day were orchestrated and planned in advance.
Thus, the term “riot,” which suggests a spontaneous eruption of violence, is no longer the term of art I shall use to describe what occurred.
I’ll use other nouns to describe the attack on our democracy. Assault and attack come immediately to mind.
Long ago, I determined the Capitol Hill assault was an insurrection against the democratic process. I made that determination even though no one has been charged formally — not yet anyway — with committing an insurrection. But it was … an insurrection.
To refer to that event as a “riot” demeans it. It reduces its significance to something less than what the assailants wanted to accomplish. They threatened to kill Vice President Pence and House Speaker Pelosi. Donald Trump said a day or two before the event that it will be “wild.” He knew what was coming!
It was a planned event! Therefore, I am going to forgo terminology that — to my mind — lessens the importance of what happened that day on Capitol Hill.